Best of the Bunch: Albania

Albania debuted back in 2004, and since then, have qualified into the final six times. Today, we’re taking the Albanian songs from the last 10 years, and then you can decide which song, or songs, are your favourites!

In 2006, Albania sent Luiz Ejlli to Eurovision with the song Zjarr e ftohtë. This was the first time sending an Albanian language song, however, this seemed to not work in their favour, as the song failed to qualify to the final, reaching 14th place with 58 points.

The next year, Albania sent Frederik Ndoci with the half English, half Albanian song Hear My Plea. Unfortunately, this also didn’t make a big impact on European audiences, reaching 17th place with 49 points in the Semi-final.

In 2008, Albania sent the young artist, Olta Boka in the hopes of achieving their best result yet. With her song Zemrën e lame peng, Olta took her song to the final, reaching 17th place in the final with 55 points.

In the following year, Albania sent another young artist, Kejsi Tola. She brought enthusiasm, and a strange green man to the stage for her song Carry Me In Your Dreams. The song almost scored the exact amount of points as Olta Boka did in the previous year, reaching 17th place, this time with 48 points in the final.

Juliana Pasha was the next Albanian artist to take to the Eurovision stage with the upbeat song It’s All About You. Following from the success of the previous two artists, Juliana slightly improved on their results though, reaching 16th place with 62 points in the final.

In 2011, Albania sent the fierce Aurela Gace, with the song Feel the Passion. Despite her powerful performance, she failed to qualify to the final, with 47 points in the semi-final, leaving her in 14th position.

Now to Albania’s best result. Rona Nishliu belted out her song Suus and amazed audiences with her vocal abilities. Even in Albanian, the song managed to be 2nd in her semi-final, and then 5th in the final. Is this your favourite Albanian entry?

It’s pretty hard to follow on from Rona, but Adrian Lulgjuraj and Bledar Sejko attempted to replicate and improve on the results from the previous year, with the song Identitet. Unfortunately, the song couldn’t reach the heights that Rona set the bar at, ending in 15th place with 31 points in the semi-finals.

This brings us to the 2014 participant, Hersi. The classically trained singer took to the stage with the song One Night’s Anger. Despite the pitch perfect vocals, the song didn’t improve on the previous year, reaching 15th place with 22 points.

Now we end our journey in 2015, where Elhaida Dani took to the stage with the song I’m Alive. Originally she won the national final with Diell, however due to some songwriter conflict, I’m Alive was the song she took to Eurovision!